


Ambition

by Heather



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Dark, F/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Het, Pre-Relationship, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-22
Updated: 2007-06-22
Packaged: 2017-10-08 02:58:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/71984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heather/pseuds/Heather
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lilah has ambitions. Written for <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/gen_remix/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://community.livejournal.com/gen_remix/"><b>gen_remix</b></a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Ambition

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks SO, SO, SO MUCH to [](http://lafemmedarla.livejournal.com/profile)[**lafemmedarla**](http://lafemmedarla.livejournal.com/) for the beta.
> 
> Remix of [References](http://community.livejournal.com/shelfics/31292.html#cutid1) by Shelley

  
Ambition met Lilah Morgan like a kick in the teeth when she was twelve years old.

She wasn't like Lindsey: an impoverished kid from the wrong side of the tracks who grew up with a massive chip on his shoulder and something to prove. Lilah had grown up in an exquisite home in Brentwood, never comprehending such concepts as "going without" anything she wanted, and happily attending some of the finest private schools in the state. All of her friends came from similar backgrounds, each sheltered from the world outside like delicate house plants. The difference between Lilah and each of them was that they were skating through life happily on Daddy's money. Lilah had too many brains to be satisfied with that.

When she was twelve, she had overhead a conversation between her mother and father that felt very much like it didn't belong in the era she was living in. Plans for her future that involved new, better schools to get into a college where she'd more easily come by an "Mrs" degree.

Maybe Lilah was not so dissimilar from Lindsey after all...it seems she had something to prove.

Lilah studied harder than anyone else in the subjects that thrilled her, and learned other ways to get by in the subjects that didn't. Her knees grew more raw and her tongue more accustomed to the taste of semen than any of the pep squad at her school, but because she had the sense to stick to teachers and stay away from boys her own age, nobody ever talked. Lilah graduated Valedictorian, with impeccable grades and a pristine reputation.

College required less of her in this regard, prerequisites for the courses she wanted considerably more worthwhile than ridiculous high school filler crap that she'd had to take shots in the mouth to survive, but it was a lucky thing when it came to her internship that she already had some experience.

It was at the Parker, Summers, Jacobson and Brown company Christmas party that this talent first came in useful. Interns were typically not invited, but she'd charmed and schemed her way through the upper echeleons of talent in the firm to forge the useful connections that got her where she needed to go, in order to make the useful connections that she'd later need.

"Ah, Lilah," Mr. Jacobson said. "Merry Christmas! Are you enjoying yourself?"

Lilah pasted on her most winning smile as she approached him. "Merry Christmas, sir. Yes, it's all wonderful. I'm so pleased to have been invited."

Jacobson smiled indulgently at her, like a grandfather with a favorite granddaughter, and said, "With your hard work and talent, you more than earned it, my dear." He turned to a man next to him and said, "Holland, have you had the pleasure of meeting Lilah, one of our interns?"

The man turned on the heels of his shoes--which looked to be at least a grand by themselves, never mind the suit he was wearing--and smiled. "No, I'm afraid I haven't."

"Lilah, this is Mr. Holland Manners, a good friend of mine who used to work with us."

Lilah shook hands with Mr. Manners, calculating his potential worth to her from the heels of his shoes to the price of his tie, and cautiously allowed curiosity to get the better of her. "Used to, sir?"

"Holland left us about a year ago to join up with those vicious bastards over at Wolfram and Hart." Jacobson chuckled and smiled again, to take away any perceived slight in the words. Manners, for all intents and purposes, appeared not to notice.

"Yes, I'm afraid the opportunities here weren't quite as extensive as the ones Wolfram and Hart offered." Manners said, appraising Lilah much the same way she herself had appraised him, and Lilah momentarily felt a deeply disconcerting sense of transparency, as if Manners was able to see exactly who she was under the veneer of charming intern so hopelessly devoted to work that she could earn herself a place at one of the "big boy" events. Lilah swallowed the feeling and kept up the schmoozing.

"I've read about Wolfram and Hart." She said, trying to hide just how keen her interest was. "I hear they only take the best."

"Indeed." Manners agreed. "The world can be a deeply disturbing place, Miss--?"

"Morgan." Lilah supplied.

"--Miss Morgan, and at Wolfram and Hart, we like to offer our clients the assurance that we will move Heaven and Earth before we let any...difficulties...darken their doors."

"Sounds like very interesting work, sir." Lilah murmured, meeting Manners' eyes.

"Oh, it is." Manners assured her. "And very...rewarding."

Lilah took his appearance in again almost hungrily. "I'm sure that's the case, sir."

Manners smiled. Jacobson looked at Lilah as though he'd never seen her before.

"If you'll excuse us, Lilah, Holland and I must go say hello to a few more acquaintances." Jacobson said, taking her elbow and lightly turning her away before he and Manners walked off, leaving her alone by the shrimp buffet.

In that instant, the entire world had suddenly shifted, and Lilah Morgan knew her place in it better than she ever had before. And very suddenly, she knew exactly where in it she wanted to be.

Lilah scanned the rest of the party, a plan already forming in her head as she considered the best and quickest routes to her goals. Parker and Brown were decent sorts, noble, and therefore just a fair hairs shy of completely useless. It didn't occur to Lilah to look lower than one of the partners; she wasn't the type to sell herself short.

Hank Summers was standing near another table, an older blond woman on his arm. She looked like the type of woman who had been very interesting before childbirth had sunk its teeth into her, and now enjoyed a life of nothing but PTA meetings and soccer practices. Standing not far from them was the apparent culprit of this transformation, a blond girl of perhaps eleven, her wide green eyes as completely blank as if she'd never had to have a thought in her life.

Lilah grinned to herself. Perfect.

It took two hours of subtle hinting to get him to detach himself from his domesticity trap and invite her up to his office to "look at the Henderson file, an absolutely fascinating case for someone as studious as you." They made it as far as the mail room.

Lilah convincingly feigned the appropriate shrieks and moans while she stared fixedly over Hank's heaving shoulders at the security camera in the corner recording their every move, promising herself she'd bribe the tape out of the security guards later.

Lilah Morgan was not stupid. She had plans.


End file.
